On Reflection - RPS Central Contemporary / Documentary Group

On Reflection

The RPS Central Contemporary / Documentary Group, 2023

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On Reflection The RPS Central Contemporary / Documentary Group 2023

Introduction The (UK) Central Region RPS Contemporary and Documentary (Combined) Special Interest Group was formed in 2020, during the pandemic lockdowns. We meet monthly via Zoom, and share projects we’ve completed or are working on. For this, our second group book, we have explored the theme ‘On Reflection’ and allowed each contributing member to interpret it in their own way, or ways.

Featured in this book are group members: 2 8 14 20 26 32 38 44 50

Margaret Beardsmore LRPS Joe Michael Egan Clive Haynes FRPS Steff Hutchinson ARPS Pamela Bruce Lockhart Linda Marshall FRPS Cliff McFarlane LRPS Carol Olerud FRPS Andy Thorpe ARPS

© 2023. The copyright of the photographs and text in this book belong to the author of the section of which they form part. All rights reserved. No part of this book can be reproduced in any form or by written, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information retrieval system without permission in writing by the relevant author.

If you are interested in joining our group, please email info@steffhutchinson.co.uk Front cover: Margaret Beardsmore LRPS Back cover: Pamela Bruce Lockhart

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Margaret Beardsmore LRPS Reflecting on my photography over the last year made me realise something has shifted in my photo mindset. My school reports always said ‘Margaret must try harder’, and that message has burnt into my subconscious throughout my adult life - and into my photography.

This year I have spent an increasing amount of time going out without any intention except to enjoy being in nature. And by just being there, my mind has settled and images have appeared. The images in this set are the result of this change of attitude. They are images from ‘being’ rather than ‘trying’.

Summer reflection: Taken at the end of a day’s boating, there were reeds in the canal waving slightly in the breeze. I shot this image through a leaf to give an impression of the reeds movement.

Dandelions: Dandelion seed heads are always fascinating to me. These images were taken on two different days when I was out mooching around with my camera, not looking for anything in particular.

Snails: Snail shells are the most intricate things. The colours in the background drew me in to take the images.

In the woods: I was doing a recce for a camera club outing in a small woodland near where I live. The day was very wet but I had my camera with me. Between showers, the sun came out, giving lots of contrast between light and shade.

Winter: Taken in the depths of winter on Cannock Chase. It was a gloomy, foggy morning and I had gone for a walk with my camera in a mood which matched the weather. This image is a double exposure, converted to monochrome with a sepia tint.

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Joe Michael Egan

So my journey begins...

With a healthy paedogenesis and hope formed in spores of confidence serving to encourage self-compassion.

For therapy, if nothing else, my reflection of the highlights that have surfaced as momentum going forward.

My practice from the beginning.

1. Curse EOS450D Nan’s neighbour’s garden! When asked If I would like to take a photograph.

2. The Mint Fiction EOS6OD Traveling from Whitkirk to the city centre of Leeds, the DWP building appeared lucrative.

3. Vctorian Antiquitie D7100 Milton Keynes Museum - captured at the history festival?

4. Lady Stowmarket D850 TLE Mid-Suffolk Railway 5. Maple Valley Sportsmen EOS 5D IlI Visitors from the Canadian Football League - MK Rugby Club Emerson Valley.

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Clive Haynes FRPS

Otherness A personal reflection upon the quality of ‘otherness’.

From time to time, we encounter an object or place endowed with an ethereally liminal presence.

Although perhaps a little inadequate, such an indefinable presence can only be described as ‘otherness’.

A reaching out by something not quite of this realm or dimension.

My images are a response to and subsequent interpretation of that sense of ‘otherness’.

It’s a strange thing, I know it when I when I find it, or perhaps more precisely, yet more eerily, when it finds me.

Numen Cutter Fragile Sentience Avaunt

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Steff Hutchinson ARPS

We need time to sit and reflect, but we don’t always take that time when we should. Chairs and seats beckon us, but often remain empty. We should sit for a while and take the time to do nothing but look, observe, reflect and lose ourselves.

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Pamela Bruce Lockhart Nature is a source of emotions. Reflecting on it is a way to leave the ugliness behind.

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Linda Marshall FRPS 40 years later Last summer, we visited the Chris Killip exhibition at the Baltic in Gateshead.

It was exceptional: the images of the people collecting sea coal were moving, fascinating and hard to look at in equal measure.

A few days later, I found myself on Seaham beach watching people collecting beach glass or dipping their toes in the North Sea. The contrast 4 decades later, was very striking.

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Cliff McFarlane LRPS

On Reflection: I looked but didn’t see.

I spent a lot of my life with a vision of what I need to do to succeed. On reflection, that was a very narrow vision of the world.

I took up photography when I retired and that is when I started to see what I was looking at: Light shining on a common scene, transforming that scene into a beautiful landscape.

Seeing is an endless journey of wonder. The normal becomes the extraordinary.

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Carol Olerud FRPS I am taking this opportunity to do some self-reflection. Having been born and raised in Australia, I feel a very strong affinity to it. I moved away at age 23. I have longed to go back and wanted to retire there.

Now that I am 61, I look at my life as it is, what it was and how it will be. Recently becoming a Grandma in October this year to a gorgeous little girl, I realize that I won’t be leaving my family living here in The Netherlands, to go back to my ‘home’ country.

In 2017/18 I had a medical scare, I underwent heavy treatment, I remained in denial. To get through the rough patch, which lasted 35 days of radiation treatment (weekend rest days, not included), I let my mind travel. A form of meditation. I needed to lay very still for about 12 minutes each time with a mask on my face and chest to keep me in place. I hated it.

The place I travelled to was Lady Elliot Island, off the coast of Queensland, Australia. A place I had visited in 2015. I imagined I was snorkelling, swimming, walking on the beach, soaking up the sunrays.

This was delightful.

On reflection, travelling there in my mind, kept me strong. I decided to return to the islands off the coast of Queensland, Australia to go snorkelling with turtles again, drifting in the ocean, feeling free. I went in 2019. My husband and I did our ‘Great Island Hopping’ trip. But that’s for another book.

I’ve survived it all and live on to enjoy everything life offers!

October 2023

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Lady Elliot Island is only accessable by small aircraft. A barge delivers goods once a week. The landing strip crosses the width of the island. It’s a coral cay, the most southern on the Great Barrier Reef. The island was mined and destroyed. Now the island is recovering. A limited number of visitors can stay.

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Andy Thorpe ARPS

I have interpreted the “On Reflection” theme in four ways, some of which might be tenuous, although hopefully covered by the wider meaning of the word.

Behavioural Reflections Either as couples or in groups, people can reflect how others dress and/or behave. The choice of hats, dogs, bags, bicycles etc, or what they do at the same time, eg looking in the same direction or taking photographs together, can be reflected both consciously and unconsciously. Who goes first? Who is the influencer? Is it a collective decision? Are they aware?

Lost Reflections Semi-detached and terraced houses are normally built in symmetrical pairs, with details such as doors, windows and walls reflecting each other. The addition of people and time eventually results in changes to such details and therefore the reflections are lost. Hints of what the original pairs looked like can however be detected with varying degrees of ease.

Lit by Reflections Reflected sunlight from buildings can be projected onto other surfaces, sometimes causing problematic glare should people consider it to be intrusive, blinding or unwelcome. Reflections can become complex, distorted, unusual or strangely aligned with the receiving surfaces ... when the time is right.

Reflections on Tragic Events The physical remains, commemorations or representations of places where tragic events occurred are focal points for people to reflect on the associated events. The need that people feel to reflect on past events is partly driven by the presence of such places. What would happen if the places or remains of them did not physically exist? Would people forget about the events?

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Behavioural Reflections

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Lost Reflections

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Lit by Reflections

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Reflections on Tragic Events

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